Video presentations and music have been tightly connected with each other since the early 1980's and cable channels were created to present them. Some of the earliest 'Music Videos' specifically for television occurred in the late 1950's (not counting variety shows that has people on to sing). I think that the first one was 'Ricky Nelson' playing guitar and singing with a few other guitar players and a drummer. This launched his musical career and gave him access to millions of people.

From these humble beginnings, people have continued to create songs and film footage that showcased the musicians.

The history of the modern music video has its roots in the early 1960s with The Beatles first major motion picture, 'A Hard Day's Night'. This 1964 Beatles movie included musical segments that resemble today's music videos. That same year, the band began filming short promotional films for their songs which were then aired on television variety shows.

By the time the band stopped touring in 1966, they used the promotional films to tour for them. Soon it was common place for artists to do this, and bands like The Byrds and The Beach Boys were also filming promotional films.

The first music videos of the modern era were produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for 'Saturday Night Live' in 1979. In 1981, he released 'Elephant Parts', the first video album and first winner of a Grammy for music video. A further experiment on NBC television called 'Television Parts' was not successful, due to network meddling (notably an intrusive laugh track and corny gags).

In the information technology era, they are now just as popular as songs themselves, being sold in collections on video tape and

Total music-video shipments worldwide surged from 57 million units in 2001 to 75.9 million in 2002, up 33%. Furthermore,